My autumn fruiting raspberries, which went in the autumn before last, have produced no fruit at all this year.The plants are strong and healthy. I assume that, as we were away for six weeks before Easter, they were affected by lack of water during the very dry spell.What I need to know is, Should I treat them as if they had fruited and cut all the stems down to the ground in early spring or shall I leave them and see what happens?

30 Sep, 2011

Answers

How long have you had them, Suesyn? If this is your first year with them, it is possible that they were mislabelled where you bought them. Also, if it was pruned quite late last spring, or the canes that were growing died out in the drought, and had to be replaced by new growth, it may not have had time to get big enough to bloom before fall.

You prune autumn fruiting raspberries in early March, unlike summer fruiting ones which you prune as soon as they have finished fruiting. Personally we are about to give our autumn rasps. away, not impressed with their fruits.